Charles Payne, a Fox Business Network host, has been suspended while sexual harassment allegations against him are being investigated by the company’s law firm. UPDATED with new information.

The Los Angeles Times broke the story today. Payne has denied sexually harassing Hughes but he did admit to a lengthy extramarital affair with her:

Charles Payne, who hosts “Making Money” on the network and appears on various other programs, has acknowledged what he described as a three-year “romantic relationship” with a married female political analyst who frequently appeared on Fox Business Network and Fox News Channel from 2013 to 2016. Payne admitted to the extramarital affair in a statement to the National Enquirer published Wednesday that included an apology to his wife, children and friends.

[…]

The woman was never an employee of Fox News, but appeared as a guest across numerous Fox News and Fox Business Network programs with the hope of becoming a paid contributor. She has told her lawyer, who is preparing a legal complaint against Fox News and Payne, that she stayed in the relationship because she believed he would help her chances of landing a position at the network,according to the sources.

Instead, the woman is alleging, after she ended the affair her appearances were drastically reduced, the sources say.

The Los Angeles Times withheld the name of the woman but journalist Yashar Ali identified her.

In April, we reported that Payne was being sued for collecting a $50,000 book advance and never turning in a manuscript. Prior to that, in 1999, Payne ponied up a civil penalty of $25,000, without admitting or denying wrongdoing, after the Securities and Exchange Commission accused him of recommending stocks without disclosing that he had received payment from those companies to promote their stocks.

UPDATE: Someone in Ali's Twitter feed noted that Hughes is married and identifies herself as an evangelical Christian:

UPDATE: Huffington Post has more details. They suggest to me that former Fox News co-president Bill Shine barred Hughes from the network because her affair with Payne became too obvious:

Payne and Hughes’ affair was widely known within the confines of the Fox Business world but a well-kept secret otherwise. Payne and Hughes, according to multiple sources who worked at the network at the time, made little effort to hide their affair. On a company trip in May 2015 to Las Vegas, where Payne was hosting his Fox Business show, “Making Money With Charles Payne,” at the annual Money Show conference, they appeared to be sharing a room and had disappeared at one point for hours, leaving their colleagues behind. Payne’s wife did not join him on that trip.

Hughes also attended a birthday party for Payne at his home in late 2015. Their interaction at that party, according to four sources that worked at the network at the time, led Payne’s wife to feel uncomfortable enough to contact her husband’s boss and ally, Shine.

Shine then pulled Hughes off the air, according to multiple sources. Hughes has not appeared on Fox News or Fox Business since then, which has confounded some media insiders because her passionate support of Trump would make her a natural fit for the pro-Trump cable network.

In short, this sounds to me more like caddish, hypocritical and detestable behavior more than sexual harassment. But I'm not a lawyer.

I remember the day after the Access Hollywood tape with Trump and Billy Bush came out and Hughes gave Ana Navarro a tongue lashing for saying pussy on CNN because her young children might hear the word.

Thanks for the replies people. Did a little searching and it seems Scottie is pretty quiet, not a comment yet, guess she is preparing her “Jesus forgave me” statement. Wonder how it’s going in the Hughes home in Nashville????

Ellen, agree with you about both Fox’s abrupt action and the involvement of Weiss. But I can imagine several variations of this— for instance, perhaps she’ll say she tried to break it off and he threatened her if she did.

FYI, unless things have changed dramatically, I think there are no unpaid TV appearances for commenters, as opposed to newsmakers. I think the union insists on a basic payment (including for non-members). No idea how much that would be anymore, but some hundreds of dollars. So not strictly unpaid, but an official “contributor” gig would be more, and also include some minimum number of appearances over the life of the contract.

Their affair supposedly lasted three years. I guess it’s possible she stuck with him all that time only because he got her unpaid TV hits that she hoped would one day earn her money and that she was banned from Fox out of retaliation for her ending the relationship.

One clue for me will be whether she gets a lawyer and, if so, who. I’d think that if she had a real case, she’d have a lawyer already and have filed a lawsuit.

OTOH, I’d like to think Paul, Weiss (a firm that once employed me, BTW) gave Fox at least some evidence that her claim was credible before Fox went ahead and suspended Payne.

So my Spidey senses are tingling but I don’t know all the details and am keeping an open mind.

My, My Karma is a bi#$h, how he put down President Obama and say all these bad things, at least President Obama loved his family and country, even though some in this country hated him,, all I can say, how do you like him now.

MJ— Herman Cain is now a Fox contributor who appears regularly at least on Hannity, so he hasn’t suffered for his misbehavior.

Ellen, I doubt this would have come up if Hughes didn’t have some story about Payne having promised her a contributor slot if she dallied with him. And honestly, I can’t imagine why she would without such inducements. He’s not exactly studly.

Bob Roberts,
As I understand it, from the HuffPost article, Hughes claims that Fox retaliated against her and blackballed her from the air after the network learned about her relationship.

I’m not a lawyer, either, but I don’t see how that is sexual harassment unless she claims something like Payne got her banned in retaliation for breaking off the affair.

Tawdry, yes, but unless there are facts yet to come out, I don’t see how Fox doesn’t have the right to decide that someone’s off-air conduct precludes them from appearing as a guest. Or, to put it another way, I don’t see why her sexual misconduct should protect her from not being a guest.

On top of all that, I feel certain that if this was a Democrat or African American alleging discrimination, Hughes would be the first to say a business has the right to make such a decision, that it’s time to stop playing the victim and take personal responsibility.

But, as we know, personal responsibility is always for other people, not the right wingers who get caught doing the wrong thing!

I’ve seen Ms Hughes frequently on CNN as a Trump surrogate. Although the bar is low for them, she impressed me as the least intelligent of the Trumpies. Meanwhile, Payne is one of the most pompous blowhards on Fox, even with all the competition in that category. What a blow to his ego to learn that she suffered him only to get a paying gig at Fox. I don’t think he is smart enough to have suspected that. What a delight in so many ways to read this story.

Dunno what you were thinking, Chuck — you’re black, so, diddling with a white female not your wife will NEVER be accepted by Fox viewers, no matter how much of a rightwingnut you are. Just ask Herman Cain.